


Hina and the Ghost of the Boy Who Left

by peonydee



Category: Kamen Rider OOO
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-11 22:57:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5644885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peonydee/pseuds/peonydee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hina is beside herself when she comes home to the seeming ghost of her brother. Though relieved to find her brother warm and tangible, Hina sets out to find the creature terrorizing the Izumi kitchen</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hina and the Ghost of the Boy Who Left

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mellon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mellon/gifts).



Hina had long suspected that she and her older brother weren’t alone in their home. While she has never been particularly neat in her workplace beyond making sure needles and other sharp things remain contained and off the floor, she did notice when entire rolls of her fabrics or boxes of trimmings went missing, often reappearing in odd places like the top of the fridge or a nearly ceiling-high cabinet. She even found some dyed artificial feathers stuffed in the light fixture over her brother’s room.  


The unseen guest also frequented the freezer for some reason. At first, she thought the door had just gotten de-magnetized over the years, but as their guest turned cavalier, Hina sometimes came home to the freezer door wide open with various foodstuffs scattered on the floor. It was such a waste of frozen dumplings, among other things, so she had taken to putting the broom shaft through the door handles of the refrigerator and that seemed to work for a time.

The first time she saw him, she nearly passed out. Hina came home to see food strewn about the kitchen floor again and thought she must have forgotten to bar the fridge doors. In frustration, she had slumped  down on her haunches to start cleaning up when she noticed something at the corner of one eye.

Hina spun to catch the sudden movement. Nothing. She pushed herself up to look around in surprise, glancing towards the living room to make sure she had closed the front door after her. When she turned back to the fridge, resigned to having to throw out most of the thawed items, she saw the something again. This time, it didn’t vanish when she looked but seemed to become clearer, sharp like air on an icy morning, until she could see there was a man perched on their countertop, gnawing on something he had obviously taken from her freezer.  

“Oniichan?” she asked in bemusement. “I think I must be getting sick. I didn’t see you there earlier.”

The man held up the half-eaten object in his hand. “This isn’t what I was promised,” he said and disappeared.

* * *

 

Hina did what any frightened person would do, scream and run out of the room. The implication of a strange and vanishing brother, however, stopped her in her tracks. If Shingo was haunting their kitchen, wouldn't that mean he was no longer attached to his body?

Hina couldn’t contact him through his cell phone. She called his police station, but they couldn’t find him either, only that he had gone out on patrol with his partner this morning as usual. She became so beside herself, she ended up running to Cous Cousier, hoping Chiyoko-san, her boss, could help her find him.

“Chiyoko-san!” she cried upon hurling the restaurant doors open. “It’s terrible. I can’t find oniichan and I think something horrible has happened because he’s haunting our kitchen and--”

“Hina-chan?”

Oniichan. Oniichan was there, sitting with his partner, Gotou-san.

“It’s lambada day,” he offered. “Jalapeno poppers?”

  


* * *

 

“So you’re saying you saw a ghost who looks exactly like me?” Shingo said after assuring his sister he was perfectly fine. He said he couldn’t hear his cell phone over the music. “That’s certainly odd. Well, it’s not me and I take after mom, so it’s not dad. But it can’t be a ghost of one of our ancestors, can it? The apartment building is only 15 years old at most.”

If Hina hadn’t thought of the ghost as her brother’s she might not have been scared at all. The thought of having a great-great grandfather visiting their home was actually intriguing to her, though oniichan’s comment about the age of the building was troubling at first. Still, Hina thought, wouldn’t it make more sense if people’s ancestors were attached to their descendents instead of a particular place?

Gotou-san had a different take on the matter.

“Maybe it’s Shingo-san’s doppelgänger,” he suggested. “Maybe it’s Shingo-san from a different space-time continuum, parts of him spilling over into this one.”

“Do you believe such things, Gotou-san? It seems so fantastical.”

"I don’t believe or disbelieve it necessarily. I’m just offering that possibility.”

“Should I try to make contact then?”

Gotou-san looked surprised and torn about what the advice to give her. “I don’t see anything wrong with that,” he finally said.

  


* * *

 

To Hina’s disappointment, her periodic visitor seemed to have made himself scarce. Her things no longer disappeared and reappeared in odd places. She no longer found costume jewelry tucked in between books or in nooks between walls and furniture. She also no longer found herself suddenly turning towards an unseen observer. Thinking the time-travelling ghost Shingo doppelganger had gone for good, she stopped barring the refrigerator doors.

“Oniichan!” Hina crowed to her brother one evening after welcoming him home. “Guess what?”

“What?” Shingo said, unable to help but smile at his sister’s bright-eyed excitement.

“Your time-travelling ghost doppelganger is back.”

“Oh, is it? Will you be setting traps? Cameras?”

“Something like that. I’m thinking of setting out bait.”

“So we’re having dumplings for dinner? I love dumplings. But all of them?”

“Only some of them is for dinner. The rest is bait.”

She couldn’t wait to set her trap tomorrow morning and come home after school to catch the time-travelling ghost Shingo doppelganger.

  


* * *

 

Unfortunately, the bait didn’t seem to work. The dumplings were left untouched on the dining table, but once again, Hina found the freezer door left open and food strewn about.

She did find an additional clue, however. As she was walking to her room, she stepped on something sticky. Upon further investigation she found a series of drips heading to a blank wall. On her desk, she found the wrapper of an ice popsicle.

Hina grinned to herself and wasn’t even that angry over having to scrub the walls, mop the floors, and clean the kitchen yet again.

“Caught you!” she yelled triumphantly when she came home the next day. “Eh?”

The kitchen was as neat and orderly as the way she had left it this morning. She couldn’t help but be disappointed, despite herself, for she thought she might finally now make contact with her oniichan’s time-travelling ghost doppelganger. Minutes later, her disappointment disappeared when she saw the walls of her room splashed with bright green, purple, orange, and red stains. Again on her desk was a dozen wrappers, neatly arranged into a wreath of sorts.

“I think Gotou-san and oniichan are both wrong,” she said in irritation. “I think we have a poltergeist, not a time-travelling ghost doppelganger.”

“Why would I be a time-travelling ghost doppelganger?” demanded a voice from above her. “And whose doppelganger?”

Despite her insistence on making this poltergeist manifest itself, Hina still found herself screaming at the top of her lungs when someone spoke in a room, a house, she knew herself to be in alone.

“Stop that unpleasant noise! Stop that right now!”

The creature that looked like her brother swooped down from above and hovered over her desk. Abruptly she stopped screaming and watched the poltergeist as it gathered its wispy tendrils into what seemed like a sitting position. Now that it was still and… there, Hina could see that he didn’t look entirely like Shingo, what with his much lighter hair, plaited into an elaborate fishtail braid, and a haughty expression that was so removed from her brother’s usual open smile.

“This tribute is hardly enough to sustain us. Bring us more of the elixir of life. We want more of the indigo ones.”

“The ice pops?” Hina hazarded a guess.

“The sweet cold things that allow us to move and touch and be seen once again. We were promised--”

“We?”

“We.” The poltergeist seemed to gather itself in indignation at her question. “Ankh.”

“Are you from our mom’s side or from our dad’s side, Ankh? Are you all of our uncles or grandfathers mushed together or are there a few aunts thrown in? How does this work?”

“We do not comprehend your query, woman.”

“Aren’t you haunting me and my brother?” Hina sat down on her bed and frowned at the... collective ghost, she supposed.

“Actually, I’m haunting that belt.” The collective ghost said it in such a normal sounding voice, that Hina stood up and inched closer to stare at it where it billowed and seemed to be almost preening its tendrils.

“I thought you were a ‘we?’”

“What’s the point? You don’t seem to be impressed. You’re just as dense as the other person.”

“The other person?”

“The one who gave you the belt!”

“The belt… Oh! That belt, I guess. The belt we used for medieval times cosplay. The one Eiji-kun lent me.”

There used to be another part-timer at Cous Cousier restaurant, an older boy who was around for a few months and then had to leave. Hina had completely forgotten about the belt that he lent her. It was about four inches wide of small interlocking hoops of beaten yellow metal, made to look like gold. And perhaps, there was a bit of gold in it---Eji-kun didn’t know, just that it was supposedly a replica of medieval German jewelry. Being that there seemed to be an odd singular ghost attached to it, maybe it was a genuine article.

“That Eiji,” the ghost Ankh said. “He promised me one ice pop a day or I will raze the Duchies of Bavaria and Franconia with phoenixian fire and meteors!”

“I don’t think they exist anymore. As duchies, anyway.”

“Bah. You spoilsport.”

And as unceremoniously as he appeared, the ghost Ankh vanished.

“Remember: I like the indigo ones best.”

More bemused than scared at this point, Hina sighed and looked for materials to clean her ruined walls.

  


* * *

 

“Why did he leave?” Ankh asked her one day as she was looking for a tartan swatch to match the shade of leather she managed to procure at a bargain price.

“Who?” Hina asked.

“Your ridiculous beau, of course.”

“Beau? I don’t have a--”

“That Eiji! The one who gave you my belt. That boy whose head is stuffed full of cotton. Him.”

“Oh.” Hina had just enough leather to trim the riding pantaloons she promised Chiyoko-san. She couldn’t afford to choose the wrong pattern or color. “He didn’t tell me,” she answered Ankh after she settled on a fabric. “I mean he did, but…”

“Please do not start mooning on the inconstancy of men lest I regurgitate these ice pops upon your drapes.”

Hina looked up to see the ghost once again preening itself on top of her desk. Its molasses eyes trained on her warily, as if expecting her to do something unpleasant. She couldn’t help but laugh.

“We do not appreciate your mocking chortle, peasant g--”

“Eiji and I are just friends.” Hina shook her head and squinted at Ankh. “He doesn’t see me like that. We didn’t know each other that long.”

“But you confessed your undying affections for him. Don’t lie to me!”

Hina sputtered, half laughing still but also half indignant. “I told him that it would be lonely working by myself again at Cous Cousier.”

“Hmph. He embellishes his retellings so shamelessly.”

“And that Chiyoko-san and I would miss him. Maybe you’re just remembering it wrong.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” Ankh was still staring at her, but he was beginning to fade around the edges, swirls of him thinning slowly into nothing. “Why did he leave?”

“He said he wanted to explore how far he could reach with just his two hands, that he wasn’t sure he was built to do what his family is asking him to do for the rest of his life.”

“A nebulous answer typical of the dolt.” Hina looked and saw Ankh had completely gone. “So why did he leave me?”

“Why did he leave me?” Hina echoed. “I don’t know.”

  


* * *

 

“Ankh, I have a bone to pick with you,” Hina said the next time she felt the ghost appearing.

Or rather, felt the drip of melting ice pop rolling down her nape.

“One, you’ve been taking more than one ice pop a day---stop that. I’m on a tight budget. Two, you’re not actually eating the ice pop since I found most of it melted on a throw pillow, in my closet, and yesterday, after pulling an all-nighter, on my bed.”

“You silly girl,” the ghost snapped. “I’m dead! How am I supposed to eat anything?”

“Oh.” Hina dropped her shears and watched Ankh take form on top of her dress pattern. “I’m sorry. I keep forgetting--”

“Ankh, a pet ghost, a lap ghost. I should eat my ice pops in your brother’s room tomorrow. I’ll eat it in his wardrobe and paint all his robes red.”

“Please don’t do that. So what do you do with the ice pops if you’re not eating it?”

“I do eat it. Of course, it has nowhere to go after I’m done. I have no body in need of sustenance. I leave it behind, where it melts.”

“But you taste it, right?”

“I remember its taste. In my duce’s court, in high feasts, they would pound ice mined from the peaks of Schwyz and flavor it with pressed fruits. I can feel its coolness and I remember the tastes.

“I come from warmer climes. Farther south. Farther west. Where our magicks are different. Where we do not expect to find eternity on this earth and instead labored to ensure our souls find it’s way to the realm of the gods.

“And yet here is my spirit bound to a dead king’s bauble.”

Ankh stopped abruptly, glancing at Hina’s pale face before delicately rearranging his smokey tendrils.

“Not for punishment, understand? One of my rivals spelled me to this belt and killed my body and my master.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Hina said, knowing it to be a lame and inadequate response. “Did Eiji-kun find your belt during his travels? I heard he traveled a lot with his grandfather when he was younger.”

“He found the belt as a child in his family’s home, an inherited booty, no doubt.”

“Oh, so you and Eiji-kun has been friends for a long time. Do you miss him a lot?”

His molasses stare flickered with an emotion Hina couldn’t place.

“I don’t have to answer anything,” Ankh declared and disappeared without any theatrics from his tendrils, cleanly gone like a popped bubble.

  


* * *

 

Ankh continued to visit the Izumi home and Hina continued to supply him ice popsicles (as well as clean up the remnants). Her brother was curious about her seeming obsession with ice pops, but when she clarified they weren’t for her, his curiosity turned to concern.

“He doesn’t bother me, oniichan,” Hina assured. “Cleaning up melted ice pops can get tiresome, but I don’t really mind that much.”

And well, the ghost didn’t really bother her. He appeared once in awhile, usually watching her work on clothes, sometimes even offering his opinion on some pieces. Hina supposed the belt has changed hands countless times over the centuries and Ankh had seen numerous modes of dress from various eras and lands. He advised on practical matters as well, in ways Hina’s work could attract enough attention for people otherwise too busy or occupied to give her designs a second glance. They never did talk about Eiji-kun anymore.

Chiyoko-san had no reason to avoid speaking of Eiji-kun, of course, and sometimes made comments about her old employee. The restaurant celebrated cuisines and cultures around the world after all and Eiji had plenty of anecdotes to share when prompted, usually short and light-hearted stories about people he had met in the past.

One of such persons came one day, an old patron it seemed. Chiyoko-san introduced him as Date-kun, with whom she had a couple of classes in college. He was now an active member of Physicians Beyond Perimeters and had only gone home to take a brief vacation and take care of a few chores. He was being deployed for another medical mission before the week ended.

“That sounds like something one of my old employees, Eiji-kun might do,” Chiyoko remarked.

“Eiji?” Date said. “Is it by any chance Hino Eiji? The Diet vice speaker’s son?”

“You’ve met Eiji-kun?”

“I’ve met him somewhere in North Africa a few months ago. I can’t pinpont where exactly, but he was with our group for a few weeks before he was reassigned.”

“Oh, that’s good to hear then.” Chiyoko paused, nodded to herself, and patted Date's arm. “I’m relieved to hear he’s not wandering by himself and all. I was half-worried he’d skip the official avenues completely.”

“I can’t blame him for that. If that happened to me, I don’t think I can trust anybody for the next ten years. More even.”

“It’s a shame, really. Despite his youth, he might have been a good mayor.”

Hina couldn’t help but interrupt the two adults at this point. “Excuse me, but are you still talking about Eiji-kun?” she asked. “Did something bad happen to him?”

Date looked thoughtful. “Do you remember what happened, Chiyoko?” he said. “I happened to be in Japan during the campaign period, but I was overseas when the worst of things happened.”

“Eiji-kun ran for public office?”

“I don’t remember where in West Tokyo,” Chiyoko-san said, “But he was only nineteen, so of course everyone was talking about it.”

“He lost the election?”

“No. He won, but he stepped down before he was even sworn in, and disappeared from public eye.”

“I couldn’t even begin to imagine… But I guess I could. It’s not impossible. Chiyoko-san, Date-sensei, do you know why he did that? Step down I mean.”

“There are a lot of stories of course. He was very well liked and wouldn’t you feel betrayed if the person you voted for suddenly decided he didn’t want the job anymore? People had a lot to say about it. There were even conspiracy theories swirling around.”

“It was pretty messy for a while there,” Date agreed. "I don't know him well by any means, but he seems like a very sincere person. That sort of sincerity inspires all sorts of things, good and bad. I'd imagine many groups want to harness that charisma of his to drive their agendas."

“I see.” Hina’s voice dropped to a whisper. She toyed with a serving tray as she waited for the only other customer to finish eating. “I guess I wouldn’t want to stay here much if I were him either.”

Ankh would probably be waiting a long time for his friend's return.

  


* * *

 

“Were you the one who convinced Eiji-kun to run for public office?” Hina asked a few days later.

She heard a derisive snort but no answer. For a moment, she thought Ankh would leave in a fit without speaking to her at all, but she could still feel him linger, could hear the occasional drip of melting ice pop on the plastic basin she now kept on her desk. She concentrated on her work instead, sewing tiny blood red strings of beads on certain sections of the dress.

“The cerulean on that fabric is eye-shattering,” he said almost half an hour later. “Dye it darker."

“That’s the idea,” she murmured. “But just wait when the beading is done. The blue will make the paisley pop out like eyes."

“You’re beading it. All by hand?”

"Who else would bead it for me?"

"Point taken."

"I do enjoy beading, don't get me wrong. It's just very time consuming and there are plenty of other things that need to be done."

"Is this one of those projects for your educational institutions that requires you to complete this ball gown on your own?"

"Not quite a ball gown, but yes, there are several things our professors are looking at throughout the course. The entire process of taking our vision from our heads, to our sketches, to our cloths, to our mannequins, and finally to our models and our runway shows will showcase everything we've learned this past year. Aside from practical reasons, like not having the money to buy the best materials or hire extra help--or maybe it's 'in addition to that' instead--it's a very satisfying feeling when all is completed."

"Can't help you with that."

Hina flashed a grin towards where she thought he was. "The thought counts."

Ankh again merely snorted.

"Maybe when I'm starting my own clothing line. You can help with that."

This time Ankh didn't respond at all. Hina supposed she was being pushy, throwing out such a line when he had always disappeared whenever her questions displeased him. She did mean to provoke some reaction, she'd admit that, but she saw herself doing this for years, dashing about working on her clothes and having the ghost come and go with his sharp commentary, and maybe, just maybe, he'd agree with her. But Hina supposed she was just being selfish.

“For what it’s worth,” she managed to say after a while. “I’m glad Eiji-kun left the belt with me instead of at his home. "

"I'm glad, too," the disembodied voice admitted gruffly. "I want more of the orange ones next time."

08062015

**Author's Note:**

> written for an [au ficlet meme](http://molliehooper.tumblr.com/post/92926602904/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-ill-write-a-short-fic) from tumblr, prompt: 41. ghost/living person AU - Ankh/Eiji or Ankh/Hina, requested by a friend


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